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Handel;
I used to be a purist when I first started to listen to Baroque music... perhaps because it seemed that there were few choices to be as to hearing this music the way it had been written and on the period instruments. This is certainly no longer true. There are any number of purist recordings available. Now some of my favorite recordings of keyboard pieces by Bach, Handel and Scarlatti were performed on piano. I am certainly quite enamored of Handel's keyboard suites played on piano by Richter... in spite of the fact that they are in no way as brilliant as the solo keyboard works of Bach.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with
those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art.

Generally speaking, I think Bach's instrumental muic is better than Handel's (except some pieces, like concerti grossi op. 6 which is on par if not better than Bach concertante production...

It's in vocal music where I think Handel is superior to Bach, which explains why I prefer, generally speaking handelian music.

At first, I discovered the wonders of classical music through the marvels of its baroque period and especially those from Mr. Handel, which explain my forum nickname. About 10 years ago, my interest leaned over classical period and Herr Haydn's production. The music bus recently drove me to the early 1800s. Where will it end?

Handel; I tend to agree with your assertion... at least to the point of sharing the belief that Handel's vocal music is probably superior to his instrumental output. As much as I admire his keyboard suites, I must say that I have heard nothing by Handel that can come close to rivaling Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, the Art of the Fugue, the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello... to say nothing of his organ work. While I greatly admire Handel's Concerti Grossi Op. 6 it is probably debatable to suggest that they are better than any of Bach's concerti... especially considering the Brandenburg Concerti, the Concerti for Violin, and the Keyboard Concerti. As for Handel's vocal productions... I will admit that with the obvious exception of the Messiah, they are probably underrated. There is a great deal of marvelous music to be found in this oeuvre which has been unjustly ignored. This is probably owed as much to the excessive fame of his Messiah as it is to Bach's towering reputation. I personally admire the light... "Italianate" manner of Handel's vocal which is certainly something quite different from much of Bach's more brooding, darkly Germanic vocal pieces (although one shouldn't ignore the sensuality and un-repressed joy that also exists in these works). Nevertheless, I am an unabashed Bach fanatic and would not live without many of Bach's marvelous cantatas (nos. 8, 140, 147 come immediately to mind... but there are many more). These works display a good deal of Bach's greatest greatest instrumental composition. The variety of orchestration and the brilliance of many of these works is all the more stunning when one considers the pressure to merely turn out the product that the composer was under. Unfortunately Handel was one of those artists who always seems as if he were standing in the shadows of another... much like Haydn to Mozart, Schubert to Beethoven, or Schumann to Brahms... this, in spite of the fact that any one of these composers is certainly a towering figure in his own right.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with
those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art.

Unfortunately Handel was one of those artists who always seems as if he were standing in the shadows of another... much like Haydn to Mozart, Schubert to Beethoven, or Schumann to Brahms... this, in spite of the fact that any one of these composers is certainly a towering figure in his own right.

I must say that I have heard nothing by Handel that can come close to rivaling Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, the Art of the Fugue, the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello... to say nothing of his organ work. While I greatly admire Handel's Concerti Grossi Op. 6 it is probably debatable to suggest that they are better than any of Bach's concerti... especially considering the Brandenburg Concerti, the Concerti for Violin, and the Keyboard Concerti.

!_________ !_________ !_________ !

This sounds like it could be a Necromonicon-like incantation for the resurrection of a prolific (famous/infamous/notorious) poster in the Classical Music Message Board community- someone who would say that our regard for Bach over Handel is profoundly misguided. Let's hope we don't go there. [BTW- no names, please... I have reason to believe that the "legend" searches for uses of his own name.]

Then again, since he's made no mention of this board since he left, except to rubbish it, perhaps we don't have anything to worry about

As long as I'm here, I might as well say something relevant to the initial topic. Good gateway works to Haydn are the (obvious) London Symphonies, with the counter-intuitive proviso that the "non-nicknamed" works do not seem to me to be in any way inferior to their more famous "nicknamed" counterparts. Oh, and the Cello concertos. They're great, too.

Well, if you like Beethoven's symphonies, you should like those by Haydn since he had some influence on Beethoven. Of course, it is different there is a haydnian presence, particularly in the earlier ones.

At first, I discovered the wonders of classical music through the marvels of its baroque period and especially those from Mr. Handel, which explain my forum nickname. About 10 years ago, my interest leaned over classical period and Herr Haydn's production. The music bus recently drove me to the early 1800s. Where will it end?

When I first went looking for this piece I found few recordings of the piece in circulation. Now there are more than a handful. You should know that there are multiple versions of the work including the original orchestral version, the full oratorio, a version scored for keyboard and a version for string quartet. I have the Fitzwilliam String Quartet version which is quite good and I have heard great things about the Emerson Quartet recording. If you are after the oratorio check out the Concentus Musicus version with Harnoncourt or the Berlin Akademie fur Alte Musik.

I now have the Emerson String Quartet version. Wonderful!

The 3rd mvt. Sonata II: Grave e Cantabile is as beautiful a string quartet movement as I've ever heard. Right at the top with Beethoven's Op. 130 Cavatina, and Barber's Adagio for Strings.

I'm a bit of a Haydn nut, and for symphonies, besides the obvious ones (Paris and London symphonies), I'm a big fan of his "Sturm und Drang" period. Can't go wrong with the Tafelmusik or Dorati recordings. Symphonie no 44 ("Trauer") and no 45 ("Farewell") are my favorite Hayden symphonies of all.

C. Sonatas
I'm not the biggest fan of solo piano, but I do like Hob. XVI:52.
I'd suggest checking out youtube and searching Haydn Piano Sonata. Seems like a fair number of them are there. Just a note to remember, anything with Hob. XVI:?? is a piano sonata

D. Concertos
As stated before by others, Haydn's Trumpet and Cello concertos are top notch and worth listening too. My favorite is Hob. VIIB:2

All previous posters to this topic know far more about Haydn's music than I ever shall, but I'll recommend this just because I enjoy it so much:
Paul Galbraith Plays Haydn - Delos DE 3239. On the eight-string Brahms guitar, Mr. G. plays four keyboard sonatas. I can't compare them to anything, they simply stand up as delightful pieces.

"Music is a social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is."
- Malcolm Arnold.

I will echo the rec of Symphony 49 - fascinating piece. Also Symphony 80. And in general, I would argue for a novice starting somewhere in the late-middle symphonies rather than with Paris or London. People fawn over these and they have a lot of good stuff but I think Haydn's language and intentions are easier to quickly grasp and enjoy with some of those earlier ones.